# Chapter 6: Blood Rain and Bloody Wind
[Main Quest: Crown of Power]
Difficulty Level: Task Briefing: Choose a prince or princess and help them successfully inherit the throne.
Task Information: Hunters have 15 natural days of selection time.
Task Duration: 30 natural days.
Task Reward: 4 True Attribute Points, increase any currently mastered skill by 1 level.
Task Penalty: None
...
Su Xiao successfully activated the main quest, and this main quest was very friendly.
First, before Su Xiao chose which prince or princess to support, he had 15 days of observation time. Although his identity as Iron Hand prevented him from openly supporting them, he still had a great advantage.
Second, this main quest actually had no penalty, which was likely related to "paid" worlds like Primordial Worlds. Therefore, the main quest requirements were relatively relaxed.
Not only that, the task duration was very long, giving Su Xiao enough time to explore this Primordial World, such as completing the adventure group's promotion or searching for ruins of the Shadow of Law Destruction.
The adventure group promotion task hadn't been activated yet, and there were no clues about the Shadow of Law Destruction ruins. Fortunately, time was abundant, so there was no need to rush on these two fronts.
The priority now was to sort out the main quest, since the rewards were simply too generous (feng hou). Not to mention the 4 True Attribute Points, the "increase any currently mastered skill by 1 level" was very tempting.
Su Xiao had obtained this kind of reward once before. He had used it to forcibly upgrade his Supreme Blade MAX-level ability by one level. The benefits were obvious—if not for that upgrade, Dragon-Slaying Flash wouldn't have been able to advance to Gold quality so quickly.
Therefore, Su Xiao would do his utmost to complete this main quest. Several of his MAX-level abilities were worth upgrading, and each MAX-level skill upgrade would greatly enhance his combat power.
"Counting the time, my several offspring will arrive tomorrow morning. Tonight, you help me deal with a few people."
The old king pulled a small roll of parchment from his bosom. Su Xiao stepped forward a few paces to stand before the old king and accepted the parchment.
"This time, don't make them disappear secretly. The new heir to the throne can't command obedience. You need to make them understand the consequences of opposing the surname 'Herbert.' No, make the entire royal capital know that you, Iron Hand, are my Bayi·Herbert's sharpest blade."
The old king patted Su Xiao's forearm, meaning for Su Xiao to openly eliminate dissidents, thereby paving the way for the subsequent power struggle and the new king's ascension.
What Su Xiao needed to do was simple: scare those with ulterior motives out of their wits. Tonight, the royal capital would surely be drenched in blood rain and bloody wind.
"Go ahead. Take 50 royal direct guards. No, for you, 20 are enough."
The old king lowered his hand and began coughing repeatedly again.
"No problem."
Su Xiao turned and walked out of the council hall. He didn't perform any grand ceremony for the old king, nor did he use any honorifics. This was the Iron Hand—eliminating dissidents for the old king was enough. Bothering with tedious formalities was meaningless.
"If, I say if..."
The old king suddenly spoke, and Su Xiao's footsteps stopped.
"If Hadi does anything outrageous, give him a chance to reform."
The old king's eyes were tightly shut. The Hadi he mentioned was the eldest prince, a prince now 47 years old. For his eldest son, the old king granted him an additional privilege.
"Understood. The eldest prince, one chance not to be killed."
This sentence was the longest Su Xiao had spoken since entering the council hall. The old king was somewhat surprised; he had clearly never heard the Iron Hand say so many words at once.
In the past, this Iron Hand basically said: "Mm, got it, clear, okay, understood, kill."
"Truly rare."
The old king didn't become suspicious. Su Xiao breathed a silent sigh of relief—it seemed he wouldn't need to fight his way out of the palace.
Su Xiao pushed open the council hall door and left. Only the old king remained in the council hall. He sat on the throne, his cloudy eyes narrowing.
"My offspring, what... surprises will you bring me?"
The old king laboriously sat up straight. His ragged figure stood before the throne. He had won the power struggle 45 years ago, and as the price, he personally eliminated all his close relatives, including his father the king.
...
Inside the palace, Su Xiao stored the small roll of parchment into his storage space. He hadn't expected to fulfill the Iron Hand's duties tonight.
When Su Xiao walked out of the palace, he found Bubu Wang observing a royal direct guard. That guard stood ramrod straight, while Bubu Wang sat equally straight, staring at the guard with wide eyes.
The guard's heart was collapsing. He knew the origin of this "dog," so he couldn't afford to offend it.
Seeing Su Xiao come out, Bubu Wang raised his head toward the guard, meaning "I'll let you off today, see you next time."
After leaving the palace courtyard, Su Xiao headed straight for the Iron Hand's residence.
Ten minutes later, Su Xiao returned to the Iron Hand's residence. Only then did he have time to carefully examine this dwelling.
The residence's courtyard was large, but overgrown with weeds. It looked like it hadn't been tended in a long time. The pond was half-dry, and the murky green water contained no living creatures.
Su Xiao was surprised to find that the Iron Hand's residence had no servants. No, there were two servants—the two little girls who looked only about ten years old.
Actually, the Iron Hand hadn't been without servants. The previous Iron Hand had driven them all away. As for the incident with the former bed-warming maids being skinned, it wasn't because the two maids fell asleep while warming the bed. It was because they were spies planted by an official. After being exposed, they were dealt with directly.
Planting spies at the Iron Hand's place was valuable and could sometimes avoid a deadly disaster.
Perhaps the previous Iron Hand couldn't find trustworthy servants, so he bought two slaves from a slave merchant—the two little girls.
The kingdom prohibited human trafficking, but one special type of human trafficking wasn't prohibited: selling humans with Necromancer blood.
Necromancers were a type of humanoid creature that could produce offspring with humans. These offspring were called half-bloods. A small portion of these half-bloods were sold as slaves, with the standard being that human blood was twice as dominant as Necromancer blood.
This type of half-blood wasn't dangerous. No special abilities had been discovered so far. The only unique trait was that they were slightly stronger than ordinary people. That was all.
There were no benefits, but the drawbacks were significant. According to past records, half-bloods had only half the lifespan of humans and one-tenth that of Necromancers, with an average lifespan of around 30 to 40 years.
The previous Iron Hand had paid a large sum of gold coins to purchase these two half-bloods. They had no combat ability, but they had been trained by the slave merchant and were proficient in housework, cooking, bed-warming, and other domestic matters. More importantly, the possibility of these two half-bloods being someone's spies was very low.
As soon as Su Xiao walked into the courtyard, Amu approached him, holding half a rockery in his hand. As for why it was only half, the teeth marks on it already explained the problem.
Su Xiao really hadn't expected that Amu, when hungry enough, would even gnaw on a rockery. If left unchecked, this residence might be leveled within two days. Fortunately, Su Xiao had authority, so Amu's food situation in this world wasn't a problem.
When Su Xiao pushed open the bedroom door, he found the two little girls still facing the wall. As they faced the wall, their shoulders occasionally trembled.
Su Xiao sat on a wooden chair, took out a cigarette, and lit it.
"You two, come here."
The two little girls turned around. By now, their faces were streaked with tears. They quickly ran to Su Xiao's feet and knelt.
"If you dare cry again, I'll kill you."
Su Xiao exhaled a puff of blue smoke. He was hesitating whether to kick these two out of the residence as well. If he did, there would be no one else in the residence. But doing so might arouse suspicion.
Su Xiao's words could only be described as immediately effective. The two little girls stopped crying immediately. One had twin ponytails, the other had a side ponytail. Heaven knows why these two sisters were so obsessed with ponytail hairstyles.
"Tell me what you two can do."
Su Xiao didn't want to keep two vases in the residence. The previous Iron Hand probably wouldn't have brought in two vases either.
"Sir, we can do laundry, cook..."
The younger of the two little girls was clearly more clever. She listed dozens of things she was good at. Her sister looked dazed, probably still in a state of panic.
"Cook. I don't need you to do anything else. As long as you can do this one thing well, that's enough."
"Really? Sir won't punish us anymore?"
The older little girl was clearly a bit adorably clueless. Her younger sister wished she could bite her—this was completely the wrong thing to bring up.
"I'll give you... one hour."
"No problem, sir. Our cooking will definitely satisfy you."
The younger little girl showed a smile. However, she didn't know that when Su Xiao said "cook," he was including Amu's appetite in the calculation. That was no easy task.
If these two sisters could solve Amu's food problem, then they would be useful. If they couldn't, then they would be useless.